Travel agent vs do it yourself bookings

Meanwhile, Dick Smith is not happy.

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The trivago case verdict.

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What a surprise. Who would have thought?

Certainly explainstheir incessant TV advertising.

Hotel price scam? Trivago.

image

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Anyone else noticed the dramatic change in Trivago’s TV ads?

Gone are the lowest price, hotel Trivago ads, replaced with ads with no dodgy claims.

What a difference a day, and a Federal Court case, makes.

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Ouch?

Any more to add?
It’s all relative to the size of the business.
Trivago is part of Expedia which internationally reported revenue of more than US$8 B in 2021.

Significant relative to the scale of the Aussie market share, the fine goes to government revenue, plus an additional amount to meet the ACCC’s legal costs. Investigative and related costs come out of the ACCC budget.

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Most of the time, the hotels listed at the top of the search results were not the best or cheapest deal. Trivago promoted hotels that paid it the biggest fees.

This is standard practice across most platforms where accommodation providers can subscribe to campaigns/promotions run by booking platforms to push their search result higher in the platform listings. This comes at an increase (>3%) to the base commissions charged by the platforms for the privilege. It is known that consumers don’t troll through pages of search results and those near the top attract the most hits.

Trivago got themselves in trouble by pushing paid position listing (such as that outlined above) and claiming the top listings were the best for the consumer, when in reality they were best for the booking platform to maximise the commissions received.

In reality, the best deals will be dealing with the accommodation provider directly, rather than through a booking platform. May accommodation providers offer discounts or additional complementary inclusions (such as complementary breakfast, bottle of wine on arrival, free transfers etc) when booking direct, rather than through a platform.

Being in the industry, I don’t know of any platform or accommodation provider that only offers the best deal or rates through a booking platform. Booking platforms are there for convenience and charge (the consumer indirectly) for booking through them 6 why booking direct (by phone or email) can provide better offerings. Booking platforms which claim the best rates/deals are dubious to say the least.

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I can attest to that with the proviso that independents have been consistently wonderful to ring, but the bigger the chain, not so much.

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